Paper deals with the problems of pandemic COVID-19 struggle, which spread over most countries. Reaction strategies adopted by governments are indentified and analyzed. Cases of the USA, Russia, Great Britain, Spain, Italy, Germany, Japan and China are discussed. Stringency regimes, schemes and support instruments are studied.

Duration and stringency of economic and social activities limitations, punishments, and scale of support of population and business and rules following were analyzed basing on open data sources. Special attention was paid to the role of soft factors in pandemic struggle including confidence and national culture. Heterogeneity of society was analyzed with the help of ethnic fractionalization index.

It was proved that more collectivist, long term oriented and less masculine cultures tend to follow limitation regimes more strictly. However punishments in countries with such cultural code turned out to be stronger. Analysis showed that countries with more individualized and masculine cultures are characterized with significant support packages addressed to population and business with stringency measures being less strong. Tension and protests of people were stronger in these countries. Obtained results prove that Soft factors play important role in formation of reaction policy under pandemic environment. Approved strategies either directly or indirectly reflect national, cultural and institutional characteristics.